At the All-Star game Marc Anthony sang “God Bless America”. Probably during the 7th inning stretch, I don’t know since I was watching at a bar with friends and wasn’t really paying attention to anything but the game. I didn’t know he sang it until I read about the racist backlash on twitter. Since then I have watched the below video. I would LOVE for the Yankees to get a tape of this and play it at Yankees Stadium every 7th inning. Pretty hot ……… Where was I?
Oh yes, racist backlash on twitter, specifically people being outraged that a Mexican was singing AMERICA’S SONG at AMERICA’s PASTIME. For more WTF tweets check out Public Shaming. My only complaint is the title refers to baseball fans being super angry which could give some people the impression that all baseball fans are racist, which isn’t true.
Let me think about this, suppose Marc Anthony is Mexican (he’s not), isn’t Mexico in North America? No, it’s in Central America, isn’t that still America? So technically he would be an American if he was Mexican, except he’s not, he was born in NYC. His reply to these stupid comments was, “There’s no one more New York than me. I was honored to be asked to sing.” But he’s of Puerto Rican descent, which doesn’t change anything, even if he had been born in Puerto Rico he would still be considered a citizen of the U.S.
Did these people forget that the U.S. is a country of immigrants? “God Bless America” was written by Irving Berlin, born Israel (or Isadore) Baline who immigrated with his family to New York from Temun Russia in 1888. And America’s game? The Home Run Derby was won by Yoenis Céspedes who is from Cuba, who learned to play baseball in Cuba. The MVP of the All Star Game was Mariano Rivera, who besides being the greatest relief pitcher and closer in baseball is beloved and respected by most people. I’ve even had Red Sox fans (who hate the Yankees) tell me, “Even Red Sox fans respect Mariano”. Mariano Rivera is from Panama, he learned to play baseball in Panama. Cause guess what? Baseball is played in other countries, some close like Cuba and Panama, some far away like Taiwan and Korea.
By the way, this post was written by an American of Spanish descent.
The Foxx Loves the Yankees 